Simulating Softness

We were in a consumer space that had as one of it measures softness.   So the measurement and creation of softness was key.

How to simulate softness    by University of California - San Diego

UC San Diego researchers specially engineered a set of materials to mimic different levels of perceived softness. 

What factors affect how human touch perceives softness, like the feel of pressing your fingertip against a marshmallow, a piece of clay or a rubber ball? By exploring this question in detail, a team of engineers and psychologists at the University of California San Diego discovered clever tricks to design materials that replicate different levels of perceived softness.

The findings provide fundamental insights into designing tactile materials and haptic interfaces that can recreate realistic touch sensations, for applications such as electronic skin, prostheses and medical robotics. Researchers detail their findings in the Aug. 30 issue of Science Advances.

"We provide a formula to recreate a spectrum of softness. In doing so, we are helping close the gap in understanding what it takes to recreate some aspects of touch," said Charles Dhong, who co-led the study as a postdoctoral fellow at UC San Diego and is now an assistant professor in biomedical engineering at the University of Delaware. Dhong worked with Darren Lipomi, a professor of nanoengineering at UC San Diego and the study's co-corresponding author.

Based on the results from their experiments, the researchers created equations that can calculate how soft or hard a material will feel based on material thickness, Young's modulus (a measure of a material's stiffness), and micropatterned areas. The equations can also do the reverse and calculate, for example, how thick or micropatterned a material needs to be to feel a certain level of softness.  ....  "